The Next Commissioner: Adam Silver Strikes NBA Gold

In announcing that Commissioner David Stern would step down on Feb. 1, 2014, the NBA also took the unusual step of naming his successor immediately.

Adam Silver, the attorney who has been a key league executive for 20 years, including the last six as Stern’s right-hand man, has already locked up the gig. What put him over the top: Silver’s exceptional work during the NBA’s 2011 lockout, which put to rest the doubts that some owners had about whether he ought to be the top choice to run the league.

“The last CBA made the difference,” says Marc Ganis, a sports business consultant who has worked closely with several NBA teams. The resolution to the dispute that erased part of the 2011-12 season included a reduction in the players’ share of Basketball Related Income (BRI) to roughly 50% from the 57% negotiated during the 2005 CBA. Increased revenue sharing also helped the small-market teams, those bearing the brunt of the $370 million in league-wide losses the previous year. It was Silver, working side-by-side with Stern in nearly every negotiating session, who regularly presented owners with reports and got their feedback, according to Ganis.

“He stopped the bleeding,” Ganis says. “Reversing the trends had a very significant impact on the perception of him by NBA ownership.”

Silver, 50, has big shoes to fill, of course. During Stern’s tenure, which will reach 30 years by the time he retires, he has managed to transform an entire industry. His initial strategy after taking over in 1984 of marketing the league through its star players – Magic, Bird and Jordan right on through to Kobe and LeBron – has been pretty well documented. Great players became international icons.

But Stern’s influence goes far beyond that. The way NBA games are presented – the music and other accoutrements during breaks in the action, celebrities sitting courtside – became regular staples on his watch. Stern took sponsorships to a new level, slapping their names on singular events like the slam dunk contest during All-Star weekend. And of course, he was light years ahead of other U.S. sports leagues in developing an international audience.

Now Silver, who’s been along for a good chunk of the ride, is in line for his turn. While it was his negotiating prowess that sealed the deal with the owners, his broad experience in the NBA’s media, marketing and merchandising businesses would indicate that he’s more than a shrewd lawyer. He’s helped Stern get the league’s costs under control. His own tenure will be marked by the next step: “to become more profitable,” says Ganis.